This publication presents estimates from the 2012 Survey of Motor Vehicle Use (SMVU). It contains statistics on passenger vehicle, motor cycle, truck and bus use for characteristics such as distance travelled, tonne-kilometres and fuel consumption.

The data were collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) over the period 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012.

Previously the SMVU data cubes were released under a separate catalogue number (cat. no. 9210.0.55.001). For this and future publications, the data cubes will be released under the same catalogue number as the main publication (cat. no. 9208.0).

COMPARISONS WITH PREVIOUS SURVEY RESULTS

Care should be taken when comparing data over time as movements may be subject to high sampling error. As a result the movements may not be statistically significant. See Explanatory Notes paragraph 14.

Additional information about the reliability of the level and movement estimates is given in the Technical Note.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

SUMMARY COMMENTARY

NUMBER OF VEHICLES

In the 12 months ended 30 June 2012 there were an estimated 16.6 million vehicles registered in Australia.

In 2012, passenger vehicles made up 76.4% of all registered vehicles. Freight vehicles accounted for 18.8% of all registered vehicles with the remainder (4.8%) comprising buses, motor cycles and non-freight carrying trucks. Of the freight vehicles, 82.9% were light commercial vehicles, 14.2% were rigid trucks and 2.8% were articulated trucks.

Motor vehicles in Australia travelled an estimated 232,453 million kilometres in 2012.

Consistent with the population distribution, New South Wales had the largest share of total kilometres travelled (28.7%) and the largest number of registered vehicles.

Proportion of vehicles and total kilometres travelled, State/territory of registration-Year ended 30 June 2012

Motor vehicles registered in Australia travelled an average of 14,000 kilometres per vehicle in 2012. Vehicles registered in Queensland travelled the highest number of average kilometres (14,900 kilometres), while vehicles registered in Tasmania travelled the lowest number of average kilometres (11,600). Of all vehicle types, articulated trucks had the highest average kilometres (83,000).

Average kilometres travelled, Motor vehicles by state/territory of registration - Year ended 30 June 2012

Passenger vehicles accounted for 72.0% of the total distance travelled in 2012.

Of the total kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles in 2012, 52.7% was for personal and other use. The remaining kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles comprised travel to and from work (27.3%) and business use (19.9%).

Freight carrying vehicles accounted for 26.0% of the total kilometres travelled in 2012. Of the 60,355 million kilometres travelled by freight carrying vehicles, light commercial vehicles accounted for 72.4% of the kilometres travelled, followed by rigid trucks (15.3%) and articulated trucks (12.2%).

TONNE-KILOMETRES

Total tonne-kilometres is the aggregation of the number of tonnes moved multiplied by the distance travelled in kilometres for each individual vehicle carrying freight.

In 2012, articulated trucks travelled an average of 1.9 million tonne-kilometres. In comparison, rigid trucks and light commercial vehicles travelled an average of 92,300 and 5,800 tonne-kilometres, respectively.

Total tonne-kilometres travelled, Type of vehicle - Year ended 30 June 2012

State/territory of operation

In 2012, freight vehicles operating in New South Wales travelled the most tonne-kilometres (56,158 million), followed by Queensland (43,933 million).

Over the period 2007 to 2012, tonne-kilometres travelled by freight vehicles in the Northern Territory increased by 46.9% (963 million). This was the largest percentage increase for any state or territory.

Total tonne-kilometres travelled by freight vehicles, State of operation, Year ended 30 June 2012

FUEL CONSUMPTION

In 2012, registered motor vehicles in Australia consumed 31,839 million litres of fuel. Of the total fuel consumed by motor vehicles in 2012, 57.3% was petrol and 37.7% was diesel.

Total Fuel Consumption, Type of fuel - Year ended 30 June 2012

Passenger vehicles consumed 18,510 million litres of fuel in 2012, of which 84.8% (15,696 million litres) was petrol.

Light commercial vehicles consumed a total of 5,526 million litres of fuel. Diesel accounted for 49.7% (2,745 million litres) and petrol accounted for 42.8% (2,364 million litres).

A total of 6,909 million litres of fuel was consumed by rigid and articulated trucks. Diesel was the main fuel type (99.4%) consumed by trucks.

The average rate of fuel consumption for all motor vehicles in 2012 was 13.7 litres per 100 kilometres. Of all vehicle types, articulated trucks had the highest average fuel consumption with 57.7 litres per 100 kilometres.

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